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I have this sudden urge to laugh insanely. Which is what our year has been like. You might regret asking the question. LOL

If 1 is the worst and 10 is the best, I’d say about a 2.

The start of our year was fine. Then we took in the two young children of a friend in long term care so their dad could go back to Egypt, supposedly to be with his dying father (I now no longer believe his father is even ill). The dad turned out to be bats*** crazy and we discovered that he’d neglected the children so badly, while supposedly “homeschooling” them, that they were developmentally delayed. There was lots of psychological abuse and some physical abuse, too. What followed was months of dealing with police, children’s services and various legal departments as he tried to control us (among his demands; we had to live like Muslims while never, ever discussing our own faith around the children, nor were we to talk to them about anything “personal”, ask them questions or develop relationships with them, etc.), control his kids (unsupervised access to them, on his terms only, etc.), threatened us when we didn’t obey his every whim, nor force the children to talk to him when they didn’t want to, called the police and social services on us with false accusations, threatened to accuse my husband of sexual assault if he so much as talked to the children (oh, yeah; I was the only person to have contact with the kids. Somehow, they were supposed to live with us but no one else in the family was to have anything to do with them), control when and how they could visit their mother – and even when and how *I* was to visit their mother, etc., all while trying to repair the damage he did to them at least somewhat. The children could not think for themselves anymore (Allah was supposed to do their thinking for them), had lost all their creativity and had to be taught things like how to sit at the table and eat without getting food all over their faces, the table or the floor. Did I mention they were 7 and 8 years old? The younger one still bedwets, convinced that she is incapable of controling her own bladder. At least we got her to stop wetting herself during the day, but she is so apathetic about sleeping in her own waste, she makes no effort to get up at night. She can, now. She just doesn’t. Oh, and he threatened to kill their mother in some rather vile emails, and we now realize he had intended to take the children to Egypt and never return, having spent the last several months before suddenly needing to go back to Egypt, grooming them for their “homeland” (a country they were not born in, had never been to and were not citizens of) and convincing them that their mother no longer loved them, no longer wanted to see them and openly talked about how much he hated her and wanted her to die. Also, she was a bad Muslim (being apostate, she is a legitimate target for murder, too).

We spent much of our summer more as bodyguards in case he showed up, snatched the kids and took them to Egypt with him where, I’m convinced, he intended to marry them off to their cousins.

And that’s just the stuff I can talk about publicly. :-/

At least the chances of his coming back have dropped, considering how many criminal and civil charges he faces if he does, but we still have to take into account that he is mentally and intellectually unstable.

I also now know more about Islam than I ever wanted to. Trying to read the Koran explains so much.

Thanks. Unfortunately, the new year dropped things down to a 1 with the sudden death of my MIL. We’ve been able to arrange for my husband and one daughter to fly out for the funeral next week. Just hoping airport security doesn’t decide he can’t take all his meds along, or has a problem with the ice-teeth on his cane, or something stupid like that. For now, we’re just taking it day by day. :-/

It’s true we had a lot of financial problems, some family health issues, and just a helluva lot of stress throughout 2013. But guess what? My kids are safe and healthy. My wife is safe and healthy. My mom is fighting her cancer very well. My dad is still kicking and he’s healthy. The whole family is doing well in that area – and I thank God for that and ask that 2014 be just as good.

And Christmas 2013 was the best I’ve ever had. It was absolutely fanastic and sort of made up for all the other problems throughout the year. It was a good time.

Religious, political, and social commentary through the filter of a conservative Christian worldview. I focus on addressing why critic's arguments against my views fail rather than the traditional positive case-making for the Christian worldview.